If Smiles could Kill

thermometers and gazeebos

“Sit down right here dear.” Nurse Joy said and I followed.

“Whats wrong with me? I was just fine when I woke up. No, I haven’t had fevers or colds lately.” I said as the nurse checked my temperature with a thermometer. One that she held against my ear and beeped.

‘Even the thermometers here are expensive’ I thought as she wrote down the results on her clipboard.

“Full name please.”

“Daniel Julian Hanson”

“Age? Year?

“15. Freshman.”

“Nothings wrong with you darling. You see the trees in the campus are in season. Pollen is all over in the air. Must have seen it the yellow powder on the walkways,”

“Im not allergic to pollen. Im not allergic to anything”

“Here’s the thing the yellow pollen alone is not really harmful. It gets really bad when the ferns are overwatered. Moss grows on the stones and they kind of just mix there.”

“What got me sick then?”

“I think you might have eaten some of the pollen and smelled the moss.”

“Hmm…” I guess that makes sense. Maybe? I don’t know. Well I did gape at the map. My mouth hung open in awe.

“This happens all the time nothing to be worried about.” The guy who helped me said somewhat earnestly. I almost forgot he was there. I was silent. I did not know what to do. Or say.

CRAP. He might think im ignoring him.

He scratched the back of his head. Fak. Now he really thinks im an ungrateful bastard.

Quick! Think of something to say.

“If it happens all the time? Why don’t they do something about it?”

Dead Silence….

Now you’ve done it. STUPID. JUST. SHUT UP. UGH. Im SUCH A MORON.

“I think youll be fine Daniel. Just don’t eat any more of the yellow!”

The nurse piped in an overly cheerful tone.

I could tell she was trying to just pass off what I said . “If you ever accidentaly do eat them . Just eat a piece of candy with it. Actually I have some.”

She dug into her pocket and handed me there individually wrapped mentos.

I nodded and mumbled “Thanks.”

I broke one open and popped it in my mouth. It was sweet and of course minty.

“You can go now.” She said with a smile. I hopped of the bed and looked at the other guy.

“Thanks again nurse Joy.” He said and went of to the door.

“No problem Anthony!” I followed him through the quiet hall. Our footsteps the only sound other than the chirping of birds. Then we were out of the building and inn open air.

“I was thinking about what you said.”

“Huh? What?”

“Let me talk. Don’t be rude.” I shut up when he said that.

“It seemed that you were imposing we cut down every pollen growing tree in the whole campus. Since you’re new you probably don’t know that those trees are as old as the founding date. Just because it’s a bit inconvenient, doesn’t mean they should be gotten rid of.”

 It was a good thing he was ahead of the path and his back was turned to me. He did not see me turn red in embarrassment.

“I- S-sorry” I mumbled with my head down.

“Hey don’t be sorry. I was just saying. Its not wrong to have your own opinion ya know.” He said and stopped in his tracks then turned to face me.

“Im Anthony by the way.” His hand was held out. I shook it and hid my hand immediately in my jeans pocket. “Daniel.”

We walked right next to each other. He wouldn’t go ahead. He paced his steps to fit mine. Even though his strides were obviously longer because of his height.

“So what were you looking up in the map?”

“Err…I was lost. I need to get to my dorm house.”

“Which one?”

“The one with the bird? The sparrow. Golden sparrow.”

“Hey there new neighbor. Our dorms are nearest each other. I’ll take you there.”

“Well…”I hesitated. “What?”

“I left my bag in the clearing. Right by the map.”

“No problem. Let’s go back and get it. By the way, everyone calls it the gazeebo.”

“Okay. Gazeebo. Sounds so damn fancy.”

“Yeah, Conrad is kinda fancy as hell” Anthony laughed and grinned at me.